I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore!

Howard Beale is a struggling news anchor in the movie Network (1976). When Howard finds out that the television network is canning him, he goes on the air saying on his next broadcast he will kill himself. He is obviously fired, and his employing network gives him a 'farewell' broadcast, on the condition it is sincere and not another outburst. On live television Howard explains how life is grossly unfair, and in his words "bullshit". The network executives realize that Howard's outbursts are getting extremely high ratings, and in turn they give him his own show.

On his own show, he immediately starts off with a rant. Addressing the people watching tv directly, not simply reading a prompt like most anchors, he explains the current state of affairs. How bad the economy is doing, how high crime is, how everyone is afraid to go out. He starts yelling at the audience, taunting them, "Go out to your windows and shout 'I'M MAD AS HELL AND IM NOT GOING TO TAKE IT ANYMORE!". Obviously this has a profound effect on the audience, because the next scene is all the people sitting in their living rooms, and getting up to the windows to yell.

I find it hard to believe that this particular speech given by a fictional character in a satirical film from 1976 has significance to our current state of affairs today. I'm not sure if the writer of the script intended his page-off character to have such lasting words.